Lucien Alphonse Joseph "José" Streel (14 December 1911 in Seraing – 21 February 1946 in Sint-Gillis) was a Belgian journalist and supporter of Rexism. Streel was an important figure in the early years of the movement, when he was the main political philosopher of Rexism as an ideology. He subsequent became less of a central figure following the German occupation of Belgium during World War II due to his lukewarm attitude towards working with Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, he was executed by Belgium after the war as a collaborator. Background and early political activities From a Catholic background, Streel took a doctorate in Romance philology at the University of Liège, where he also acted as president of the university's Fellowship of Christian Students. While working as a teacher and academic, Streel joined l'Action Catholique de la Jeunesse Belge in 1930 and whilst in this organisation he became close to Léon Degrelle and Jean Denis. As such he was an early member of the Rexist movement and rose to prominence with his 1932 work, Les Jeunes Gens et la Politique, which underlined his distaste for the modern world. Strongly influenced by Charles Maurras, the book sought to appeal to what it called the "young Catholic elite". Throughout his writing Streel argued in favour of fascism, which he described as "something spiritual and mystical". In keeping with other fascist theorists he was highly critical of rationalism and instead argued that "you must act. The rest will take care of itself". He was fiercely critical of individualism as opposed to group identity, arguing "the individual does not exist in the pure state". Rexism Streel was appointed editor-in-chief of all the Rexist publications in 1936. That same year he published Ce Qu'Il Faut Penser de Rex, which was important as the philosophical basis of Rexism. He argued against democracy and in favour of an organic society, rejecting government by political parties and underlining what he perceived as the importance of group membership on the basis of family, regional, cultural and nationalistic identities. His work dealt little in the practicalities of how the ideology would be implemented, with these more mundane aspects covered more in the works of Denis. He had reservations about Nazism due to his strong Catholic faith, and was generally not pro-German in outlook. A reserve officer in the Belgian Army, he was briefly held in a prisoner-of-war camp following the German invasion.